Weather on the Plains is a funny animal. One farmer can have his house blown away by a tornado, all of his crops destroyed by hail and what's left of his topsoil washed away by six inches of rain while the farmer on the next section will only get a light summer shower.

The way that the storms angle from southwest to northeast makes our county a dust bowl, whereas Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Wichita get massive downpours and lots of tornadoes. It's always amazed me how people built almost all of the major Plains cities in the worst weather areas. The original settlers coming west in their wagons must have said "Hey, look how green it is here! Let's build a city!" never thinking that maybe considerable rainfall on the Plains might equate to a stormy climate.